Mediocrity is the norm in IT. Stuff breaks or stops working, users call the help desk, and then it gets fixed. Or it never really works right to start with but we get used to it.
Consider how confusing and problem-prone Microsoft Outlook is, while at the same time its the standard for a corporate email client.
Greatness and ease-of-use in business technology is rare and seems to happen by accident.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Look at Apple. What makes them special is that Steve Jobs will not settle for less than great products that people will love to use. His reputation is based on him holding people accountable for producing the best products they can, even when they may not want to…or do not know how to.
Great IT starts with a vision of how it will make the user experience better. This becomes the strategy. Everything then must follow to support this. And while working on this you can’t for a moment think that it is about the technology because its not. Technology doesn’t make a company. People do. Its all about the people.
Its about allowing people to be better at their jobs, to get more done, and to be delighted about how IT helped them to do it.
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